SELECTED Reviews and coverage for Take Me Apart
Best Books of Summer (People Magazine)
Amazon Book Review Top 10 Best Books of May (Amazon Editors)
★BookPage
“Sara Sligar's debut novel 'Take Me Apart' a dark and absorbing psychological drama” (USA Today)
“Mysteries: A Shattered Lens” (Wall Street Journal)
10 Books to Read in April (Washington Post)
5 Books Not to Miss (USA Today)
Bust Magazine
Spring 2020’s Most Anticipated Debuts (Library Journal)
Publishers Weekly
★Kirkus Reviews
21 Debut Authors to Discover Now (GoodReads)
Most Anticipated Books of 2020 (LitHub)
Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020 (CrimeReads)
10 Most Anticipated Horror/Thrillers of 2020 (Bustle)
Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half of 2020 Preview (The Millions)
24 Most Anticipated Mysteries / Thrillers of 2020 (GoodReads)
SELECTED Interviews / Podcasts
Backstory ♫
Bookpage
Write or Die Tribe
Unlikeable Female Characters ♫
Debutiful ♫
The Downtown Writers Jam ♫
PRAISE FOR TAKE ME APART
"A juicy thriller."
―Entertainment Weekly
"Sun-soaked noir… While it does revolve around a mystery, it’s really just fiction, the kind that makes you want to turn the pages…Take Me Apart has frequent flashes of fine art, and many passages sparkle with Sligar’s style… Sligar explores the sticky territory of power dynamics between men and women, whether boss and employee, teacher and student, or husband and wife. She threads a scathing feminist critique throughout both narratives, nailing all the right talking points of the current discourse."
―Randy Rosenthal, Los Angeles Review of Books
"By turns, a West Coast art-world satire, an erotic romance and a descent into madness [with a] gratifying conclusion."
―Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"My favorite debut crime novel of 2020… just spot on about transforming life into art and who gets sacrificed ― particularly women ― as a result."
―Sarah Weinman
“Sligar delivers an intriguing mystery while tackling big themes, especially sexism and the societal restraints placed on women’s bodies and minds. The results are spellbinding. A raw and sophisticated debut.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] perceptive debut… With a cool style and fast pace, Sligar achieves a propulsive exploration of these ambitious women’s inner turbulence in response to an abusive man in each of their lives.”
—Publishers Weekly
"Dark and poetic. The atmosphere Sligar builds in the house where Kate works is superb, and the way Miranda’s papers are incorporated into the narrative is outstanding because they allow the dead artists to become main characters… A brave novel that demands to be read… Readers get a strong, brilliant, flawed woman that is a truly memorable character whose haunting voice permeates the narrative… Fast and immediate, real and relatable."
―Gabino Iglesias, Criminal Element
“What a clever, visceral thriller. A raw, unfiltered twist on gaslighting that challenges how society treats women. It made me sad, angry, and fired up.”
―Araminta Hall, author of Our Kind of Cruelty and Imperfect Women
“Take Me Apart is a stunning debut. In gorgeous prose, Sara Sligar creates a haunting and decidedly feminist literary thriller that explores mental illness, violence, and the nature of obsession. I loved this novel so much that I blew off all my responsibilities, turned off my phone, and blistered through the whole thing in one sitting. Unforgettable and thought-provoking, Take Me Apart has my highest recommendation.”
—Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
“Take Me Apart is an ambitious, intelligent, and ridiculously readable literary thriller that takes on art, sexism, violence, and mental illness—all set against an evocatively rendered Northern Californian landscape.”
—Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin
“Take Me Apart is such a delicious novel: perfectly plotted, atmospheric, disturbing, sad―even sexy. … I couldn't put it down.”
―Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
“A smart, post-modern book that takes on the complexities of gendered mental illness and trauma at an engrossing clip. … Take Me Apart teases out the tensions of visibility and fame versus the hidden, unseen wounds of home and interiority, and asks the hard questions of what it means to create as a woman―create art, create life, and create yourself.”
―Caite Dolan-Leach, author of Dead Letters
“Sara Sligar’s obsession-worthy debut combines the penetrating insight of the best art criticism with the seductive menace of a modern Gothic romance. Take Me Apart is my favorite kind of thriller: masterfully paced and psychologically precise, with subtle twists that reveal themselves like a developing photograph.”
―Layne Fargo, author of Temper and They Never Learn